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If there are 10,000 masks in stock but 100,000 people want to buy a mask, how do you distribute the masks to people? In a free market the price is determined by
by bno1 7y ago
If there are 10,000 masks in stock but 100,000 people want to buy a mask, how do you distribute the masks to people? In a free market the price is determined by supply and demand, such that only 10,000 people will be willing to pay the higher price of the mask. Socialism doesn't work in this case, you just can't satisfy everyone's need for masks.
I'd argue that people shouldn't even buy masks during pandemics and they should be reserved for medical staff who actually need them and know how to use them properly.
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago"From each according to their ability, to each according to their need", as the maxim goes. You distribute according to highest need. Which is what you said. It's strange that you said "socialism doesn't work here" and then in the next sentence gave the socialist solution "distribute according to the greatest need"; which here would be medical staff. The difficulty with that is human greed. Capitalism embodies human greed and turns it, with careful intervention, towards a relatively useful force (when resources are limitless!). Communism tries to fight human greed, which is why it can't be imposed and must be adopted. Communistic systems readily get overrun by capitalistic actions - under war-time rationing, for example, black markets rise up ... one greedy person ruins the whole system, one generous person does not.